Brucella is a fastidious, aerobic, small, Gram-negative coccobacillus that is neither motile nor spore-forming (1, 2). Brucella is considered an “Overlap select agent” because it not only has the potential to pose a threat to public health and safety, but it also poses a threat to animal health and animal products.

10.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2008. Public health consequences of a false-positive laboratory test result for Brucella – Florida, Georgia, and Michigan, 2005. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep57:603–605

11.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Institutes of Health. 2007. Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL), 5th ed. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/OD/OHS/biosfty/bmbl5/bmbl_5th_edition.

21.GomezM, NietoJ, RosaC, GeijoP, EscribanoM, MunozA, LopezC. 2008. Evaluation of seven tests for diagnosis of human brucellosis in an area where the disease is endemic. Clin Vaccine Immunol15:1031–1033.